Don't criticize my church!

CHURCH leaders in Redhill and Caterham have expressed their shock and condemned a website which claims to "name and shame" them.

Redhill Baptist Church and Caterham Baptist Church appear on The Anti-Church Forum website, which contains a list of more than 100 churches.

Redhill Baptist Church has been labelled "dead as a doorknob" and Caterham Baptist church has been dubbed "just plain dull" on the site.

Pastor James Collins, of Redhill Baptist Church, in Hatchlands Road, said: "Having had a look at this curious and, in places,inaccurate and unpleasant website I am baffled by the categorisation of Redhill Baptist Church as dead as a doorknob.

"Ours is a lively church with busy and well attended Sunday services and many community activities that meets the practical and spiritual needs of hundreds of people.

"I can't help wondering whether our presence on the website reflects anyone's genuine involvement with the church."

The Rev Keith Johns, of Caterham Baptist Church, in Beechwood Road, said: "Some of the things on the site are quite shocking and I want to distance the church and myself from them.

"My particular objection to the site is that it fails to make any distinction between the churches.There's a scatter gun approach and it just writes off all the churches as the same."

The website,which has had more than 24,000 visitors, was set up as a forum for people to discuss their faltering faith by 35-year-old Jonathan Castro, who used to attend Caterham Baptist Church.

Mr Castro,who works as a transport planner and moved to Guildford three months ago, claims to have visited many of the Surrey churches on his list.

The self-proclaimed "ex-Christian" said: "I set up the website two years ago because I became very disillusioned and thought God wasn't what he was hyped up to be.

"The whole worship process has become too charismatic,with jazz bands and popular music.

"Appointing women vicars and allowing homosexuals to go to church is just hypocrisy and I thought it was contradictory to what the Bible says."

The website which contains articles entitled "Why Church Sucks" and "Stupid Church Creed" is also used as a discussion forum for Christians and non-Christians from across the globe.

Mr Castro said: "I used the website to express my feelings and it was set up for people who were struggling and hadn't found God in their life either.

"I wanted to be a true believer but felt so let down."

Mr Castro says that his involvement with the website has dwindled in the two years since he set it up,but still logs in to check up on what is being written by others.

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